‘It’s good to be useful’: The volunteer heroes helping us through the coronavirus crisis
Some of the people stepping in to support emergency services and set up grassroots groups – from Italy to India – share their stories with Adam Forrest
The coronavirus has left millions living in fear since it began its devastating spread across the planet. The outbreak has not paralysed us, however. It has inspired an unprecedented surge of voluntary efforts to save and protect our neighbours.
In the UK, an army of more than 700,000 people have responded to the government’s call to help support the NHS and deliver essential food and medical supplies to the 1.5 million most vulnerable in the country.
Across the globe, ordinary people have signed up to bolster their emergency services and set up new, grassroots groups to look after everyone in their community. The Independent has taken a closer look at some of the heartening work going on in different parts of the world.
Coronavirus: states touching New York City region told to limit travel
Donald Trump backs away from quarantine of states as US death toll tops 2,000 and global infections pass 660,000
The US infectious diseases authority, the CDC, has urged millions of residents in three states touching the New York City region to avoid non-essential travel, citing extensive spread of coronavirus among the population.
The bulletin spanning three states was issued after a verbal confrontation between Donald Trump and the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, sparked by the president’s suggestion that the state and others might be placed under quarantine to contain the Covid-19 virus. Trump backed away from the idea after Cuomo likened it to a “declaration of war” by the federal government against the states.
Coronavirus: Centre delivers sharp warning to states after migrant exodus, says will hold officials responsible
Coronavirus updates: People who travelled during the lockdown will have to spend 14 days in state government-run quarantine facilities, the Centre has ordered
The Union government on Sunday firmly reminded state governments that the onus to ensure that their boundaries are sealed was theirs and they should not allow the migrant workforce to cross borders and break the protocol for the nationwide lockdown across the country.
The Centre also decided to isolate the tens of thousands of people who travelled during the lockdown imposed from Tuesday midnight and place them in state-run government quarantine facilities for the next 14 days.
What Next?Attention Slowly Turns to the Mother of All Coronavirus Questions
The fight against the coronavirus has paralyzed society and the economy. Lockdown measures are fine for the short term, but they threaten to rapidly destroy the economy and erode our existing social order. What should the next steps be?
By Benjamin Bidder, Felix Bohr, Anna Clauß, Jürgen Dahlkamp, Ullrich Fichtner, Jan Friedmann, Annette Großbongardt, Martin Knobbe, Marcel Rosenbach, Michael Sauga, Cornelia Schmergal, Thomas Schulz, Gerald Traufetter and Steffen Winter
The storm has already begun ravaging several countries, but in many others, it is still approaching. The coffins are piling up in Bergamo, while in Wuhan, they are counting their graves. Hospitals in Madrid, Paris and Tehran are struggling to keep up, and the virus is racing through the population of New York. In India, the government has asked its 1.3 billion people to observe a 21-day quarantine. The black clouds of COVID-19 are gathering over Africa and the Americas.
North Korea launches sixth unidentified projectile in under a month
Updated 0052 GMT (0852 HKT) March 29, 2020
North Korea fired an unidentified projectile into the sea off the coast of Japan Sunday morning, the sixth launch by the Kim Jong Un regime in less than a month.
Japan's Self Defense Force said in a statement Sunday that the missile had landed outside the country's Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from Japan's shores.
"It is a serious issue for the whole international society including Japan that North Korea has repeatedly launched the missiles lately," the statement said.
1968 - the year that haunts hundreds of women
By Ly Truong
The man had come in to buy soy sauce. Tran Thi Ngai was working as a midwife and nurse, but that morning she was looking after her parents’ shop in southern Vietnam while they were out.
He had grenades hanging from his armour, guns on his belt. It was the summer of 1967, and the Vietnam War - pitting South Vietnamese forces, the US and its allies, against the North Vietnamese Communists - was escalating.
As he approached the counter, he held out the money. As Tran reached to take it, he grabbed her arm, then her hair, and dragged her into the back room of the shop. There he raped her.
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